Unified treatment of the Coulomb and harmonic oscillator potentials in DD dimensions

Quantum mechanical models and practical calculations often rely on some exactly solvable models like the Coulomb and the harmonic oscillator potentials. The $D$ dimensional generalized Coulomb potential contains these potentials as limiting cases, thus it establishes a continuous link between the Coulomb and harmonic oscillator potentials in various dimensions. We present results which are necessary for the utilization of this potential as a model and practical reference problem for quantum mechanical calculations. We define a Hilbert space basis, the generalized Coulomb-Sturmian basis, and calculate the Green's operator on this basis and also present an SU(1,1) algebra associated with it. We formulate the problem for the one-dimensional case too, and point out that the complications arising due to the singularity of the one-dimensional Coulomb problem can be avoided with the use of the generalized Coulomb potential.Comment: 18 pages, 3 ps figures, revte

Reflectionless PT-symmetric potentials in the one-dimensional Dirac equation

We study the one-dimensional Dirac equation with local PT-symmetric potentials whose discrete eigenfunctions and continuum asymptotic eigenfunctions are eigenfunctions of the PT operator, too: on these conditions the bound-state spectra are real and the potentials are reflectionless and conserve unitarity in the scattering process. Absence of reflection makes it meaningful to consider also PT-symmetric potentials that do not vanish asymptotically.Comment: 24 pages, to appear in J. Phys. A : Math. Theor; one acknowledgement and one reference adde

Continued fraction representation of the Coulomb Green's operator and unified description of bound, resonant and scattering states

If a quantum mechanical Hamiltonian has an infinite symmetric tridiagonal (Jacobi) matrix form in some discrete Hilbert-space basis representation, then its Green's operator can be constructed in terms of a continued fraction. As an illustrative example we discuss the Coulomb Green's operator in Coulomb-Sturmian basis representation. Based on this representation, a quantum mechanical approximation method for solving Lippmann-Schwinger integral equations can be established, which is equally applicable for bound-, resonant- and scattering-state problems with free and Coulombic asymptotics as well. The performance of this technique is illustrated with a detailed investigation of a nuclear potential describing the interaction of two $\alpha$ particles.Comment: 7 pages, 4 ps figures, revised versio

Parton coalescence and antiproton/pion anomaly at RHIC

Coalescence of minijet partons with the partons from the quark-gluon plasma formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions is suggested as the mechanism for production of hadrons with intermediate transverse momentum. The resulting enhanced antiproton and pion yields at intermediate transverse momentum gives a plausible explanation for the observed large antiproton to pion ratio. With further increasing momentum, the ratio is predicted to decrease and approach the small value given by independent fragmentations of minijet partons after their energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Quantum Hamilton-Jacobi analysis of PT symmetric Hamiltonians

We apply the quantum Hamilton-Jacobi formalism, naturally defined in the complex domain, to a number of complex Hamiltonians, characterized by discrete parity and time reversal (PT) symmetries and obtain their eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. Examples of both quasi-exactly and exactly solvable potentials are analyzed and the subtle differences, in the singularity structures of their quantum momentum functions, are pointed out. The role of the PT symmetry in the complex domain is also illustrated.Comment: 11 page

Jet Tomography in the Forward Direction at RHIC

Hadron production at high-$p_T$ displays a strong suppression pattern in a wide rapidity region in heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies. This finding indicates the presence of strong final state effects for both transversally and longitudinally traveling partons, namely induced energy loss. We have developed a perturbative QCD based model to describe hadron production in $pp$ collision, which can be combined with the Glauber -- Gribov model to describe hadron production in heavy ion collisions. Investigating $AuAu$ and $CuCu$ collisions at energy $\sqrt{s}=200$ $A$GeV at mid-rapidity, we find the opacity of the strongly interacting hot matter to be proportional to the participant nucleon number. Considering forward rapidities, the suppression pattern indicates the formation of a longitudinally contracted dense deconfined zone in central heavy ion collisions. We determine parameters for the initial geometry from the existing data.Comment: 6 pages for Hot Quarks '06 Conferenc

Generalized Swanson models and their solutions

We analyze a class of non-Hermitian quadratic Hamiltonians, which are of the form $H = {\cal{A}}^{\dagger} {\cal{A}} + \alpha {\cal{A}} ^2 + \beta {\cal{A}}^{\dagger 2}$, where $\alpha, \beta$ are real constants, with $\alpha \neq \beta$, and ${\cal{A}}^{\dagger}$ and ${\cal{A}}$ are generalized creation and annihilation operators. Thus these Hamiltonians may be classified as generalized Swanson models. It is shown that the eigenenergies are real for a certain range of values of the parameters. A similarity transformation $\rho$, mapping the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian $H$ to a Hermitian one $h$, is also obtained. It is shown that $H$ and $h$ share identical energies. As explicit examples, the solutions of a couple of models based on the trigonometric Rosen-Morse I and the hyperbolic Rosen-Morse II type potentials are obtained. We also study the case when the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is ${\cal{PT}}$ symmetric.Comment: 17 page

Isospectrality of conventional and new extended potentials, second-order supersymmetry and role of PT symmetry

We develop a systematic approach to construct novel completely solvable rational potentials. Second-order supersymmetric quantum mechanics dictates the latter to be isospectral to some well-studied quantum systems. $\cal PT$ symmetry may facilitate reconciling our approach to the requirement that the rationally-extended potentials be singularity free. Some examples are shown.Comment: 13 pages, no figure, some additions to introduction and conclusion, 4 more references; to be published in Special issue of Pramana - J. Phy